COLUMBUS SAILS THE CARIBBEAN 247 the Dutch captain, discussed the situation with us in exas- perated shouts. Between his own outbursts and counsel from our side he tried again and again. And finally with a roar up came his ground hook firmly snagged to an ancient an- chor such as had not been seen outside of museums in ages. There hanging to the pudgy modern anchor of the freighter was a wide-flanged "hook" which measured about ten feet from top to bottom. The whole of malleable iron was re- markedly well preserved. Its shaft, some three inches in di- ameter, and all of it, had certainly been hammered over some ancient European forge. A few days before I had looked upon the only authentic relic of the fleet of discovery—an anchor mounted in the headquarters of the Haitian gendarmerie at Port au Prince. I had first seen this anchor as a small child at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. And now in this obscure little tropical harbor had come upon another anchor which seemed at first glance to be a replica of the original. The Dutch captain was all for throwing it back into the harbor but yielded to a request that it be taken ashore. This he did and we later transferred it to the deck of Ulndependance for more careful checking when we might again return to Port au Prince. The story of Columbus and the destruction of the Santa Maria is well known to students of Columbian history. The disaster occurred on Christmas eve, 1492, when Columbus, asleep in his quarters, was shaken out to make the less pridef ul discovery that the helm had been entrusted to the som- nambulant cabin-boy and the proud little ship was grinding on the reefs opposite what is now a native village in Cape Haitien harbor. Columbus with the Santa Maria, Nina and Pint a left Palos in Spain on August 3, 1492. Every school-child is grounded